House (noun) — a building designed for people to live in, typically a separate structure occupied by one family.
House (verb) — to provide accommodation or living space for a person or group; to contain or hold something within a building or structure.
What Does House Mean?
House comes from Old English hūs, meaning a dwelling or shelter, related to Old Norse hús. The word has remained in continuous use for over a thousand years with minimal change in its core meaning — a place where people live.
As a noun, house refers to a physical structure: a detached house, a terraced house, a country house. In British English it is carefully distinguished from flat (an apartment in a larger building) and from home, which carries emotional weight rather than referring to the building itself. You buy a house but you go home.
As a verb, house is more formal and appears regularly in official, journalistic, and academic writing. It can describe providing accommodation for people (the council agreed to house the families) or containing a collection, department, or function (the new wing houses the permanent collection). Note the pronunciation shift: the noun ends in an unvoiced /s/, while the verb ends in a voiced /z/.
Example Sentences
| Sentence | Level & usage note |
|---|---|
| They live in a small house near the school. | A2 — basic noun usage |
| My parents are thinking about buying a bigger house in the countryside. | B1 — noun with adjective + prepositional phrase |
| We are planning to move house next spring, so we need to start packing. | B1 — fixed collocation: move house |
| The archive houses thousands of original manuscripts dating back to the seventeenth century. | B2 — formal verb: to contain |
| The charity was set up to house vulnerable young people who had been left without accommodation following the closure of the hostel. | C1 — formal verb: to provide accommodation for |
Collocations
| Collocation | Meaning / example |
|---|---|
| detached house | A house that stands on its own, not connected to another — They bought a detached house with a large garden. |
| terraced house | A house in a row sharing walls on both sides — Most of the street is made up of Victorian terraced houses. |
| semi-detached house | A house sharing one wall with its neighbour — We grew up in a semi-detached house on the outskirts of town. |
| move house | To relocate to a different home — Moving house is said to be one of the most stressful life events. |
| full house | Every seat in a venue taken; also used informally for a busy household — The theatre played to a full house every night of the run. |
| open house | An event where a property is open for viewing; also an occasion of informal hospitality — The school holds an open house every October for prospective parents. |
| council house | British English: a house owned and rented out by a local council — She grew up in a council house on the edge of the city. |
| country house | A large house in a rural area, often historic — The wedding was held at a beautiful country house in Wiltshire. |
| house the collection | To contain or display a set of objects — The gallery was purpose-built to house the national collection of ceramics. |
| house prices | The cost of buying a property — House prices in London have risen sharply over the past decade. |
Usage Notes
House vs. home: House describes the physical building; home describes where someone lives or belongs emotionally. You buy a house, but you feel at home. It is perfectly correct to say "I live in a rented house" and "I am going home" in the same paragraph — they refer to different things.
House vs. flat: In British English, a house is a separate building (or part of a building with its own front door at street level), while a flat is a self-contained unit inside a larger building. In American English, a flat would typically be called an apartment.
Pronunciation: The noun /haʊs/ and the verb /haʊz/ are distinguished only by the final consonant. This voiced/unvoiced distinction is identical to the noun/verb pairs use (/juːs/ vs /juːz/) and advice/advise.
Register: The verb house is formal. In everyday speech, prefer put someone up, accommodate, or give someone a place to stay unless writing professionally or formally.
Common Mistakes
Watch Out For
I am going to the house. (when meaning your own home)
I am going home. (no article needed with home as an adverb)
They live in a house of five rooms.
They live in a five-room house. (compound adjective before noun)
The building houses the offices of the university since 1998.
The building has housed the university's offices since 1998. (present perfect for ongoing state from a point in the past)
We moved the house last year. (incorrect: move is intransitive in this expression)
We moved house last year. (fixed phrase — no article, no object)